Awesome / Zorua Trainer

• Ash's payback against Damian, Sunny's original trainer. As the abusive jerk is heading away from the Pokémon center, fog rolls in, obscuring the path. A ghostly voice calls out to him, accusing him of leaving it to die. And then he's confronted by a pitch black Charizard looming out of the mist. It's all the thug can do to maintain his composure as he books it in the other direction. Moral of the story? Don't anger an illusionist.
  • Damian's punishment in general is this due to his Karma Houdini status in the original series. He gets attacked by Ash when the former causes the latter's illusion to burst, gets told off by everyone else who was present for that scene, gets the aforementioned scare above and finally loses his trainer license and have his Pokémon released from his registry. After his treatment of Sunny and the implied further abuses of his other Pokémon, it's hard to say that he didn't have all that coming, especially when he was more than willing to get physical with Ash even while the latter was still in his human disguise.
• After Sabrina pulls her usual shtick of turning his friends into dolls, Ash snaps. Gone is the jovial, enthusiastic, and somewhat goofy Pokemon Trainer. In his place is an enraged Zorua throwing out Night Dazes left and right, brushing off getting pummeled with debris and fighting the psychotic psychic quite literally tooth and claw to get his friends back.
• A visit to the crystalline caverns underneath Kanto results in the unleashing of an Eldritch Abomination of a Dugtrio, similar to the Gengar and Alakazam buried near Pallet Town. Our heroes end up resealing it, along with Ash catching the fanatical Diglett responsible for unleashing it, who happens to be the very same one responsible for setting the flock of Spearow against him and Pikachu.
• While she ends up losing, Misty manages to give Inspector Joy's Latias one hell of a battle.
• Meeting Gary on the boat to Cinnabar, Ash is able to one-up his rival by revealing that he managed to find the Fuchsia City Gym when Gary couldn't.
• Blaine. Just, Blaine. It takes a special kind of awesome to style yourself as a gameshow host while doing battle inside a volcano. And he shows Ash just how far he needs to go by absolutely demolishing him with a Mega Camerupt. His closing lines show that he's well aware of how much of a mess the region has become, and he's resolved himself to correct things by making sure only the absolute best manage to make it into the League.
  “Kanto is in shambles. Giovanni was the strongest gym leader? Please. The man barely showed up to his job. I’m the final hurdle now.”
  The Blaze of Cinnabar rose to full height and stood proud, Magmar at his side, head help high. Camerupt howled in the arena below. “So they can all come! They can challenge my might! I decide who goes to the league now! Challenge me again and again! I’ll stand strong at the Gates of Hell!”